Milestones in Our Animal Family

It’s been rainy here off and on. Sweet, fuzzy Molly came in this morning from an outing with this piece of evergreen stuck in her hair. As you can readily see, one of the things I’ll need to put on my list is scrubbing her in the sink. She will be 13 years old the first part of March.

Amber, aka “Destructo Dog,” was 11 months old yesterday. People tell me that she will continue to grow and STILL act like a puppy (read getting into everything and destroying whatever she finds) until she is 2 years old.  Her saving grace is that she’s very affectionate. She got into my husband’s lap in his recliner last night, nuzzling his ear and making him laugh. When she straightened up and looked like she was planning to jump from my husband’s chair to mine, I leaped up and sat on the couch. She waited a split second for the ‘okay’ and jumped up, turned around once after kissing me, and sat with me for a good 10 minutes.

Abby was described as a “Lap Kitty” in the newspaper when she was put up for adoption. A couple found her meowing in a tree and decided to make her a part of their family. Their two Siamese cats disagreed – violently. We brought her home after having to stuff her into our carrier. It took at least a day with me sitting in the back bathroom with her before she warmed up.  We took her to the vet to get shots, be checked over, and spayed. We discovered she was pregnant. We had to make the decision to abort the kitties, since we’ve been awash in kittens before and had no interest in being so again. Abby is, indeed a lap kitty, moving from one of us to the other as wonderful places to sit whenever we sit still long enough.

This is our computer helper, Smoke, the newest addition to our cat family. We found her at the vet’s. I went up to her and put my finger on the outside of the cage. She walked right over and tried to nuzzle my finger. I was gone. I dreamed about her, named her in my dreams, couldn’t get her out of my head. We went back and adopted her. My husband remarked that – for a free cat – she sure cost a lot, after we got her shots and got her spayed. She is quite the hunter. I’m trying to convince her that moles, voles, and other ‘oles’ are preferable to birds, but I’m not at all sure she’s convinced. Even though she’s a lot younger, she is the head cat, with Abby deferring to her on whatever she’s decided she wants. She’s also a techno-kitty, loving to sit on the printer, the counter beside my computer screen, the table beside the counter, or in my lap as I type.

And finally, the fish –

I changed from a fish bowl to a larger fish bowl, and then finally to a 5 gallon aquarium. I bought 4 gold fish. One is a dark orange, two are bright orange, and one is basically white with one orange spot. (Guess what HIS name is…) The others don’t have names. They don’t say a lot, but they do respond when you put your finger up to the tank.

I feed them twice a day. When it’s time, I say, “Hi, Guys!) and they all swim to the front corner of the tank, in line vertically, very actively wagging their tails and staying in one place, if that makes any sense. As soon as I put food in, they move from the corner to gulp down the food.

So that is our wonderful animal family. We still miss Bambi, our sweet pit bull, but we picture him chewing on a huge rawhide bone, smiling happily at us around it.